As an ophthalmic photographer by day, and a crafter by night, I welcome you to a world of my favorite things: crafting, primitives, folk art, photography, antiques, thrift stores, and general weirdness! Hope you find a few ideas here; Happy Crafting! :)

After my last project, I was in the mood to continue the snowman theme! The result: a cheap glass bottle turned country snowman decor!

I got this $1 bottle at Michael’s because of its unique, narrow shape. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the perfect shape for stacked snowman heads! I labeled this post a “dollar store craft” because the Dollar Tree has a great selection of glass jars, wine glasses, glass candle holders, etc., that you could cover with cute snowman faces!

This DecoArt multi-surface paint is my new favorite. It gives great coverage and I love the fact that it cures, leaving a permanent design. Regular acrylic paint will work too, as long as you finish it with a clear sealer.

I used two different sized foam stamp brushes to create the heads. The foam stamps are quick, easy, and make the heads look like fluffy snowballs!

Looking back, I wish I had stamped the heads closer together, creating a more “stacked” look. I shall have to try it next time. For the next step, paint on long, skinny noses and little rosy cheeks. I made sure to point the noses in different directions to keep it interesting!

Then, paint two little dots for the eyes, and more dots in a semi-circle for the mouth.

I added a homespun fabric accent around the neck of the bottle. I debated on using a navy blue or red ribbon, but I always seem to come back to the homespun! I am thinking this is simply a decoration and not a functioning container, as the neck is too skinny for anything to fit down in the jar. Maybe you could use it as a holder for a sprig of poinsettia or holly berries? 😀

With this paint, it takes a week to cure and will then be a permanent finish. No need to seal, however, I was thinking of putting on a little sparkly mod podge over the faces. Just to give the jar a little sparkle here and there. To sparkle or not to sparkle; that is the question! What do you think???

Happy crafting!

P.S. Thank you for all the sweet comments lately. You guys are the best. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday season! ❤

Tis my favorite crafting time of the year…the season of painting SNOWMEN! They are easy, fun, and everyone loves them! I recently came across a new kind of paint that works great on glass surfaces, so I decided to try painting on some mason jars. The paint is DecoArt’s Americana Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic. If you’ve tried painting on glass, you know it can be tricky. This stuff seems to have great coverage and “cures” after a few days, leaving a permanent finish. Here’s my finished product, and the how-to below!

This “looking up snowman” design is all over Pinterest, and I have been waiting to paint him forever! To get started, I did two coats of this pretty aqua color. Choose any color you want for the background. Coats were spaced about 3 hours apart. When applying the second coat, you risk “lifting” the first coat if it’s not completely dry. Unfortunately, patience is a must with this type of craft. A little tip; even after ample drying, try to apply the second coat quickly and lightly.

For the snowman head I decided to use a sponge stamper brush. This helps create the fuzzy edges of the head.

For the snow, I used the “splatter” technique. It’s pretty messy, but it works great! Put a little bit of paint in a bowl and water down just slightly. You want the paint to be a little thinner than how it comes in the bottle.

I protected the sink with some paper towels and went to town, flicking the paint brush at the jar to create the speckled snow look.

Once the heads were dry, I went on the paint the noses, rosy cheeks, and black dots for the mouth. Here’s an example of the “lifting” I was mentioning earlier. I was trying to fix one of the rosy cheeks and was painting the same little area over and over, and pressed a bit too hard. It pulled off all of the layers of paint in that area. Unfortunately it is hard to repair these types of paint tears without being super obvious….so I decided to scrap this jar.

I also added the big snowflake above his head, and a few larger white dots of snow. I’m so happy with how they turned out! The paint will cure after 4 days, or can be baked (directions on back of paint bottle). I chose to let them cure by air drying. According to the paint instructions there is no need for a final clear sealer!

After curing, I added a piece of twine and a rustic snowflake. I happened to have these on hand, but you could also little jingle bells, some pip berries, or other rusty shapes. Even just a little jute or homespun bow would be cute too!

You could put a tea light in the jar, or fill them with holiday treats! I will be giving these out as gifts stuffed with candy. As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you all are enjoying all the fun crafts that comes along with the holiday season! 🙂

Do you ever buy random craft supplies because they are awesome, even though you don’t have a specific project in mind? Of course you do…we all do. It’s an addiction, and there’s no use fighting it!!! Lol 😀 So I found these unfinished Halloween themed wood cutouts, and simply could not resist. I decided some fun Halloween tags would be an easy and fun way to use them!

I started off with some blank brown craft tags. I always have these on hand because they come in handy for all kinds of projects.

I distressed the tags using a little piece of sponge and some distress ink. Regular stamp ink works too! I used a brown and then repeated the process with black. Distress to your liking…but not too dark if you’re going to stamp on words or designs.

I forgot to get a pic, but after the tags dried for a minute, I then lightly stamped them with skeleton keys and other designs, along with words like “spooky,” “the witch is in,” and “eek.” Next, paint your wood pieces.

After they dry, distressed them the same way as the tags!

You can go a step further and splatter them. Lay the wooden piece on a paper towel in the sink. Add a tiny bit of water to thin down some paint (unless it’s already thin, then use as is). Coat your paintbrush and then flick the bristles with your fingers to splatter the paint onto your piece.

Let them dry thoroughly. Then hot glue the wood cutout’s to the tags and add twine or ribbons to hang them. Here they are!

“The witch is in” is my favorite! I’ve got them hanging all over the house! 🙂

As always, thanks for stopping by! Hope you’re having as much fun with Fall and Halloween crafts as I am!

Who else is in the mood for some Halloween crafting?! The Fall and Halloween decor is popping up everywhere and I’m so super excited!!! After I got ahold of myself and stopped buying Halloween decorations, I decided to stop at the Dollar Tree to look for some new materials to work with. I saw this simple wall light and thought that blank round dome could be easily be converted into a snowman or a pumpkin face! Actually, a snowman face would be super easy since it’s already white to begin with. I shall file that idea away and make some snowmen in a few months. My first attempt was the pumpkin face!

If you don’t know which wall light I am talking about, it’s this one. The batteries are not included so make sure to have 4 AA’s handy.

First, draw your face outline on the light with a pencil.

I decided to use chalky acrylic paint because I thought it would give the best coverage. I am sure regular acrylics would work just fine.

Fill in your face…

And then paint the outer rim. Once they are both dry, fill in the eyes nose and mouth with a black paint pen, or black acrylic paint.

I decided to jazz him up a bit with some light green dashes around the outside rim.

Then I mixed the orange with a touch of white to make a lighter orange, and made some stripes down his face. Here he is!

After completely dried, I sprayed him down with a coat of clear poly as a sealer. Then I hung him up and hit the lights! Lit up you can see some of the paint strokes, but he’s still pretty cute. This would make a great night light or cute decoration outside at night!

Also, I wanted to say thank you all for your kind comments on my last post after being away for a while. It’s so nice to hear that you enjoy the posts and maybe find a little inspiration here. It’s been really fun working on some new projects and I hope to hang on to this motivation and run with it!

I’m back! After a long crafting hiatus I decided to make something in honor of my favorite season approaching; also a project requested by a friend 🙂 . I haven’t had a lot of time or motivation over the last year so I do apologize for my lack of posts. It feels great to be back at it again. This is a popular one on Pinterest and I’m sure you’ve seen many variations of it. Here’s my take and the how-to!

First I bought the large wood piece already cut to this size at Lowe’s, and had the hat-brim pieces in my stock pile of wood. You can use any size for the brim depending on the look you’re going for; I opted for a chunky, large hat. I spray painted both sides of the board and the brims first, then nailed the brims down on either side so they mirror each other.

Here he is all painted, but I don’t like that real crisp, shiny look…

I like a little bit of a worn look so I did some sanding on the edges. I love these little sanding squares, and when they get all nasty and used up, I wrap a new piece of sand paper around it. Go for a large grit to work faster.

If I could find my frickin palm sander I probably would have done more overall sanding for a more rustic look, but since I was hand sanding and my arm was tired, I just got the edges.

Now it’s time for his face(s)! I perused Pinterest and got some ideas of the faces I like and don’t like, and decided on these. I like the simple eyes, the dotted mouth for the snowman, and the cross-hatched mouth for the scarecrow. Also, I HAD to have the candy corn nose!

For his rosy cheeks I used a little round foam brush. You could use any sponge, or just paint pink circles.

Incase you were wondering I used a black paint pen for the crisp lines, a yellow and orange paint pen for the noses, and white/red acrylic for the white accents and pink cheeks. Any ol’ acrylic paint would work, but I like the paint pens because they allow you to work with more precision, especially when outlining.

Now time for the hat accents. To start, I wrapped a piece of burlap ribbon all the way around and tied it in a bow on the scarecrow side. For the snowman I decided on some pip berries and a rusty star. Everything was secured with a hot glue gun.

For the scarecrow, some raffia and a large wooden button found at Michael’s. Both sides also got a little bow of homespun fabric for some color.

I also added “scarfs” by just ripping some strips of fabric and hot-gluing them in place, criss-crossing a bit.

I’m pretty happy with him overall, my only complaint being the hat seems a bit large for the face. Maybe next time I’ll use a skinnier brim.

Thanks to everyone for checking in and commenting over the last year. I hope to be back again soon with some new ideas! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!!!!!!!!

My latest crating venture has been painting mason jars. I’ve seen them all over Etsy and Pinterest and they are SO darn cute. I especially love the “ombre” jar sets. There are so many possibilities with different colors, sizes, stencils, themes, etc. After much trial and error, I’ve figured out that the type of paint you use is key! Here’s how I tackled this project.

First, I gathered up some jars. I did a very small batch because I wanted to get the process down before I go nuts painting every jar in sight. LOL. 😀 I had a few quilted jars and also picked up these sets of mini jars at the Dollar Tree. I love the tiny size of them and think they’ll make cute “trinket jars.”

For the newer packaged jars, I just started painting. For the previously used jars, I wiped them down with rubbing alcohol to ensure any dirt or oils were removed. A clean jar allows the paint to adhere to the glass better.

The most important tip for this project: do NOT use regular acrylic paint. Even though many tutorials say it will work, I had a really hard time with getting the regular acrylic to stick to the glass. The first coat would go on streaky and the second coat would peel off the first coat, even after ample drying times. The best paint to use is chalk paint. I got the Craft Smart brand that is a chalky type of acrylic, which seemed to work well. I think the straight up chalk paint will work even better!

I did the first coat with a soft paint brush and let it dry for 24 hours.

Some might stop at one coat and be fine with that look, but for me it was a bit too transparent. I found the second coat has to go on quickly. The more brush strokes, the more likely you are to peel off some of the first coat. Overall they came out pretty good.

I let them dry for another 24 hours. I then used some coarse sand paper to rough them up a little and create a worn, distressed look.

Once sanded and wiped off with a towel (to get off the paint dust) I sprayed them with a clear sealer. Any clear poly will do. I used a satin spray and really liked the results.

Tied on a little twine bow and boom! Do you like them with or without the lids?

I love the quilted jars. The raised diamond pattern is pretty cute. I can envision one of these on my counter filled with a little bouquet of flowers. 🙂

I experimented with using scraps of homespun fabric to accent the jars. I think I like the twine better.

I think I shall make another big batch with more colors now that I have the process down. For now I’ll put these in my booth at the co-op and see if they move. I’m thinking I’ll price ’em at $2.50 for the small jars and $6.50-ish for the large jars. If you have any tips or tricks for this project, please leave a comment and share!!!

While the mason jars were drying, I tinkered with another quick project. I found this wooden puzzle while I was perusing the thrift store, and you probably already know what I did with it!

MAGNETS! I am obsessed with making magnets because they are easy and great sellers.

I am always on the look out for cool wood puzzle pieces for just this reason. I love this theme!

I stumbled across this cute gift idea on Pinterest, originally posted on the bridal blog “Something Turquoise” and I thought they’d make a fun “Secret Santa” gift, for a co-worker of mine. I made them more Christmas-y themed by using ribbon and holiday themed tags. They are pretty self-explanatory as far as the construction, but I’ll give you a run down of the supplies I used. 😀

I got these paper straws at Target in the party section. They have every color you can imagine, which would work great for whatever theme you’re going for!

I used 16 oz. regular mouth Ball mason jars, red & white bakers twine, and shiny ribbon for a little holiday flair. The “mixers” are the small, thin pop cans (7.5 fl oz)…not the normal sized ones (12 fl oz). The normal ones do not fit through the mouth of the mason jars. I also used hot cocoa packets to go with the Baileys. 😀

The drink combos I used are: Cherry Vodka with Red Bull, Diet Coke with Malibu, Coke with Jack Daniels, and Hot Cocoa with Baileys. YUM!

Instead of the cute “cheers” tags, I opted for holiday themed tags I had on hand. It would be easy to punch your own tags and customize them for special events or favors.

So, using a long piece of bakers twine, tie on the straw first. You should have long pieces of twine hanging down – use those to tie on the small bottle next. Tie left over ends into a cute little bow.

Then tie on the tags with some festive ribbon. I tried doing the whole thing with ribbon, but found it had to be pulled really tight to hold the bottle on, and feared it would snap. That’s why I went back and re-did it with the twine. Here’s the final product.

Aren’t they cute? Great idea for favors or for fun at parties. I will definitely make these again and know many people who would enjoy them. Anywho, have a great week and Happy Crafting! 🙂

Update: Here’s a few more I made for favors at Christmas dinner! This time I opted for mini bows instead of tags. Also made up some fun new drink combinations like orange pop with whipped cream vodka which makes a “orange creamsicle” cocktail! Yum!!!

Welcome to Eyeballs By Day, Crafts By Night!

As an ophthalmic photographer by day, and a crafter by night, I welcome you to a world of my favorite things: primitives, country crafts, folk art, photography, antiques, flea markets, thrift stores, eyeballs, and enjoying the simple things in life!